Home cooked comfort

Cooking is one of the things I miss most while travelling. Although we had a stovetop, fridge, and sink in the camper, space was very cramped and the ventilation system wasn’t great. Our most successful camper meals were pretty much bread, cheese, and paté.

I’m very much enjoying cooking in a real kitchen and have been making some old favourites. Relatively easy and very comforting meals like ravioli with mushrooms and sage, chili with baking powder biscuits, gnocchi with lemon and arugula, and this delicious ham & cheese loaf.

Most of these familiar recipes need a bit of adapting as German grocery stores stock different products than Canadian ones. We’re not always able to find exactly what the recipe calls for and sometimes that creativity pays off.

The original Ham & Cheese Loaf recipe (which I think my mum clipped from a newspaper about 20 years ago!) calls for chopped ham and grated Swiss cheese. My husband often made it with ham and cheddar cheese and we’ve also used leftover turkey in place of the ham before. I imagine a wide-range of cooked meats would work really well.

Cheddar cheese is hard to find in Germany and there are so many options for meat and sausage here that being limited to ham made no sense. I used gouda cheese and Schinken-Fleischwurst (a large, lightly spiced pork sausage) for the loaf in the picture.

The loaf (which is a rather unappetizing way to describe such a yummy combination of bread, meat, and cheese) is fantastic warm and even better cold the day after. A leftover slice makes an excellent snack and slices disappear from the fridge with astonishing speed.

Eating familiar food in a still-foreign culture makes me feel a little more at home, a little more comfortable, and a lot less hungry!

Ham & Cheese Loaf

Ingredients

• 500g (4 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 packages rapid rise yeast (14g or 1/2oz in total)
• 250mL (1 cup) water
• 35mL (1/4 cup) Dijon mustard (or Senf mittelscharf if you’re shopping at a German grocery store)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 225g (1 1/2 cups or 8oz) cooked meat, chopped
• 225g (1 1/2 cups or 8oz) firm cheese, grated
• 1 egg, beaten

Method

• Set aside 125g (1 cup) flour; line a baking sheet with aluminium foil and lightly grease
• In a large bowl, mix together remaining flour, sugar, salt, and yeast
• In a small saucepan over medium-low heat bring water, mustard, and butter to about 50°C (125-130°F )
  • it should be warm enough that you can’t comfortably dip your finger in for more than a few seconds
• Stir warm liquid into flour mixture and add in enough reserved flour to make soft dough
  • in more humid climates you’ll need more of the flour
• Turn dough out onto a floured surface and knead for about 4 minutes
  • the dough should be smooth and bounce back when pressed with a finger
• Roll dough into a rectangle – just over 1/2cm thick (1/4”) and roughly 35x30cm (14×12”); transfer to greased baking sheet
• Sprinkle meat and cheese down centre third of dough length; make cuts from filling to dough edge at 2.5cm (1”) intervals
  • kitchen shears are an easy way to cut the dough
• Bring strips from opposite sides of filling together, twisting and placing ends at an angle across meat and cheese
• Rise the dough by covering loaf with a warm, damp towel and placing the baking sheet over a large shallow pan half-full of boiling water;  let sit for 15 minutes
• While dough is rising, preheat oven to 190°C (375°F)
• Brush loaf with beaten egg and bake for 25 minutes until golden brown
• Let cool for 5 minutes before slicing and serve warm or cold
• Enjoy leftover slices for as long as they last!